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Welcome to the eG Forums!

These forums are a service of the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to advancement of the culinary arts. Anyone can read the forums, however if you would like to participate in active discussions please join the society.

I think that, in the spirit of the “Letters” portion of the eGullet Society’s mission, it’s time for a Culinary Short Story Competition.

I love the short story. Not to diss War and Peace or Moby Dick -- well, maybe Moby --but I revere writers who can conjure a complete world in twenty pages, or three, or one. Wild Woman that I am, I also love the two short story shows, Selected Shorts and Stories on Stage, that my local NPR station broadcasts every week. While richer, more enterprising folks are heading to their seven o’clock reservations at Per Se or Charlie Trotter’s – or ordering pizza from the joint in the strip mall -- I’m more likely to be sipping a martini and listening to a tale on the radio, while sorting socks and waiting for dough to rise. This hour is an escape, a delight, and a reminder of how great it was to be a kid and hear my father read to me before bedtime.

WBEZ, the Chicago NPR outlet, has an annual short story contest wherein all contestants must use the same opening line. Let’s see what Society members can do with this opener:

You can tell more about a man by looking into his fridge than looking into his eyes.

Rules:

1)This is a fiction competition, not an essay contest. Plot, characters, etc.2)Food must be an integral part of the story.

Length:We're not killing any trees here, so think of 500 words as a good place to start

Prizes:

Prestige. An audience of millions. And a cookbook to the first, second and third place winners, in descending order of cookbook magnitude.

Hey! Not to complain or anything, well yes I am, why have you changed the deadline to 2/28 on the topic for entries???

Clearly by the timing of the posts several people were working with the original of 2/16 as a deadline. IMHO it does not seem 'right' to extend the deadline. My two cents. In the end it is your forum, do what you want.

AlisonA (who has also been blown away by the entries. Good stuff there.)

Just because it's the day after Oscar night, don't return your jewellry or take back your tux: the awards season is just beginiing. You might need your backless Valentino to walk the eGullet Society red carpet next Sunday, when I'll be announcing the winners.